Report from CEESP Chair, Kristen Walker Painemilla
Last week after three years of work, the 24th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP24) reached a major accomplishment with a draft decision on the Local Communities and Indigenous...

Forest loss, land degradation and decline in ecosystems services is growing across the Caucasus and Central Asia region, resulting in loss of the biological and economic productivity of the land, decreases in environmental benefits, and a substantial negative...

Biodiversity conservation is the goal of the countries meeting over the next few weeks at the 14th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity. A new working paper outlines a hopeful vision and practical applications for...

Over the past two decades alone, nearly 100,000 hectares, or 6% of the world’s mangrove forests have been lost. This is just a fraction of the global mangrove loss through the past century. Restoration of these important forests is a tangible way forward –...

The second phase of Forest and Farm Facility (FFF), a global partnership between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), IUCN and Agricord, was launched on...

According to the 2018 Progress Assessment of the New York Declaration on Forests, the world is not on track to meet global goals to halve natural forest loss globally by 2020 at the current pace. We take a look into this assessment with a focus on the...

Momentum is everything. The U.S. State of California and city of San Francisco kept climate action momentum fresh in our minds by bringing governments, NGOs, companies, Indigenous People, and the international climate change community to the Global Climate...

They store unrivalled amounts of carbon. They provide the necessities of life to more species than anywhere else on land. They replenish the air, furnish water and enrich the soil. They aren’t just forests – they are primary forests including intact forest...

On 28 and29 May, and 9 and10 August, IUCN Lao PDR facilitated trainings in the Xe Champhone Ramsar Site in Savannakhet Province and Bueng Kiat Ngong (BKN) Ramsar Site in Champasak Province, respectively. The aim of the trainings was to educate local...

More than 1.5 billion small forest and farm producers throughout the world depend on forest landscapes to produce food, fuel, timber and non-wood forest products to meet their subsistence needs and generate cash income. Despite the large number of...

In June, IUCN Lao PDR assessed turtle populations in the Xe Champhone Ramsar site in southern Lao PDR. They studied several threatened turtle species, and plan to continue the work at the Beung Kiat Ngong Ramsar Site in the coming months.

Biodiversity is inherently connected to forest landscape restoration, but conceptualising this relationship has been elusive – until now. A new publication called, ‘Biodiversity guidelines for forest landscape restoration opportunities assessments’ is...

The United Nations held the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on the Sustainable Development Goals. This article highlights how the role of restoration of deforested and degraded forest landscapes in the achievement of the SDGs, particularly SDG 15, has...

The World Commission on Environmental Law participated for the first time as an observer during the 13th annual session of the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF-13). One of the main messages delivered at the session is that forests are crucial for the maintenance of...

From April 24 to April 27 IUCN Lao PDR facilitated a workshop in Beung Kiat Ngong (BKN) wetlands in Pathoumphone District, Champasak Province. The aim of the workshop was to implement the Ramsar Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (R-METT), which assesses...

CEESP News - by Aroha Te Pareake Mead, CEESP Chair, 2008-2016
The work of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has direct relevance to CEESP at many different levels and offers some direct...

At the tenth anniversary celebration of IKI, the initiative and IUCN reflected together on the progress made in deploying Nature-based Solutions to climate change, reaffirming the role of ecosystems and biodiversity for climate action.

A blog by Dr. Emmanuel O. Nuesiri, international scholar and editor of a new book on responsive forest governance – a look at how forest governance has global implications for regulating climate and more.

At the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress in 2016, its Members Assembly adopted a landmark decision for indigenous peoples and conservation. Members voted to create a new category of membership for...

Calculating the value for money of investments in restoration is complex – but becoming clearer. Guatemala has made strides in forest landscape restoration, and IUCN played a small but significant role. A new publication explores this dynamic field.